What schools can teach the rest of industry about ESG
In a world in which Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) has become a sine qua non of corporate identity, schools already have plenty to shout about given their long history of socially-focussed endeavour.
ESG considerations are becoming an increasingly important part of how companies relate to their communities. A lasting legacy of the global financial crisis of 2007-08, their importance is underscored by the growing calls for companies to take responsibility for their impact on society and the world. In part a reaction to the Friedman Doctrine, ESG outcomes are a way for companies to demonstrate that they see their role as being about more than the bottom line.
Schools are often seen as being behind the adoption curve on business trends and changes, and so it is tempting to assume that as ESG initiatives have taken hold in private industry in general, schools must now play catch-up. This may apply particularly to private schools, whose profit-making activities make them especially susceptible to the same demands as with other private companies to justify their positive contributions to society.
However, this is one space in which schools are light-years ahead. Given their work to shape future generations through education, social impact is at the heart of any good school. Even in the context of a private school which may constitutionally be a private company, the driving force behind the school’s creation will only very rarely have been the profit motive alone (who gets into education to make money?) and reputable schools will define their success not merely in commercial terms but rather on the fulfilment of their mission and vision. Schools are in the business of creating good humans.
Equally, in the area of governance the history of schooling illustrates the powerful and formative role that communitarian paradigms have played in how schools are governed – something to which the rest of industry is now paying increasing attention. Schools and school boards have long drawn on stakeholder representation, the value of community knowledge, and the role of democratic decision-making processes to help shape direction and engage the whole community in oversight of their work. What is new to many parts of industry is de rigueur to schools, to the point where many school leaders and governors would take for granted the approaches they take.
Demonstrating a contribution to fostering a sustainable environment remains more of a challenge for schools, as it does for many sectors. It can be tough to balance the value of environmentally friendly practices in areas such as food waste, vehicle emissions and resource management with the impact that such practices have on school budgets (which are often very limited) and, in the case of private schools, competitiveness and parent affordability. It will remain of importance for schools to engage in the right discussions to guide practices across the sector, and organisations like The Alliance for Sustainable Schools may help to lead the way.
What is clear, though, is that schools have a lot to teach other types of organisation when it comes to ESG. The way they are led and governed tends naturally towards a positive contribution to human life and the planet, and so schools should feel confident, when in future they are subject to growing calls to demonstrate their ESG credentials, that they already have plenty to offer.